My Choice for steel is a good stainless steel such as 440C or CPM-154 and my reasons are excellent corrosion resistance, excellent edge retention along with the ability to have great flexiblity if you want to grind the blade thin.
In my sharpening biz I see a couple of bad cases of neglect every few months of people who put a fillet knife away in the sheath or tackle box with salt water and guts on them. "Yes I charge a little extra for these smelly cases"
The people want me to clean and sharpen a stinky wreck.
Stainless blades fair through this kind of neglect usually far better than a carbon steel blade.
I'm not saying you would intentionally neglect your knife, but if it happens?